OngoingWorlds blog

News & articles about play-by-post games, for roleplayers & writers

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Week Two, SB118 Writing Improvement Month

UFOP Starbase118 Writing Improvement Month 2013It’s been another amazing week during the UFOP: Starbase 118 Writing Improvement Month. We really enjoyed the Spreecast video chat with award winning author Lev Grossman, who came to speak with us about all things having to do with writing. The best part was getting to ask him questions of our own, and having him answer us candidly with information we can use to improve our own writing skills.

And Mister Grossman was only the first of many such Spreecast events we have planned for the last bit of the month. Join us this weekend, on Saturday the 23rd, at 3pm EST (12pm PST, 8pm GMT), when Starbase 118 welcomes Star Trek author David R George III who will be sharing his insight on characterization! Read More

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Week One, SB118 Writing Improvement Month

Marissa Jeffrey from Starbase 118

Written by Marissa Jeffrey from Starbase 118

The first week for UFOP: Starbase 118’s first ever Writing Improvement month has been wildly successful. Not only was the first event, an IRC Q&A with Star Trek and Sci Fi author Margaret Wander Bonanno, insightful and helpful to writers of all kinds, but it gave everyone involved a taste of what’s yet to come.

Some of our leadership also got together to help create tutorials that could be used by simmers both in the Fleet and in RPG games across the net, to improve their writing. This week’s theme was grammar and research, and how we could use it to write better. Read More

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Kicking Off Writing Improvement Month!

UFOP Starbase118 Writing Improvement Month 2013This weekend kicks off the Starbase 118 Writing Improvement Month with some exciting events. Overall, the entire month is focused on helping creative writers and gamers improve their skills in writing, with each week divided into specific themes. The first week of the event will feature information about using grammar correctly, general writing tips, and using research resources to improve the posts we write.

Be sure to sign up for the mailing list so that you can be kept informed about the many things going on throughout the month!

The schedule for this week will include various email tips and tutorials, helpful links, and some interactive live events that everyone is sure to enjoy.

On February 3rd, join us for our opening ceremonies and meet the people who will be partaking in the event and who are leading the various activities. Read More

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UFOP: Starbase 118 – 2013 Writing Improvement Month!

UFOP Starbase118 Writing Improvement Month 2013 Writing has always been a skilled art form since man scribbled on the walls in the cave. No writer anywhere thinks they are as good as they will ever be. Many of us strive to improve, and end up surprising ourselves with elements in our writing we never thought were possible. In the spirit of this idea, UFOP: StarBase 118 will be hosting month long event to help writers everywhere improve on their writing quality throughout February.

The group will be utilizing the Writing Improvement email list to send out tutorials, examples and schedules upcoming events. They will be hosting many different IRC and Google Hangout events during the month to help many writers with tips to improve their craft. StarBase 118 has lined up many authors to attend and host these chats, and all are welcome to attend. Read More

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Announcing the Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

That’s right, we’re now accepting nominations for the Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing (also known as the Squiddie Award).  What is this new award, you might ask?  Simply put, it is the pinnacle award presented by our organization.  Each year it will be bestowed upon three different entities: one person, one sim/game, and one club.  They will then be entitled to use the honorific Superior Online Role Playing Laureate (or Squiddie Laureate).

Squiddies will be presented for exemplifying one or more of the following characteristics, primarily during the previous calendar year:

  • Excellence in role playing
  • Originality and innovation
  • Facilitating the community experience

Nominations may be made by anyone (self nominations are permitted).  Each nomination should include a write-up of why the person, sim, or club is deserving.  The write-up should focus on one or more of the three areas mentioned above and not exceed 250 words. Read More

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Introducing the 2012 Simulation Cup Winners…

The Simulation Cup

The Simulation Cup

It gives me great pleasure to introduce the winners of the 2012 Simulation Cup!  But before I get into that, I’d like to briefly explain what the Simulation Cup is and how it works.  Filling in this year for the annual Tournament of Simulations, the Sim Cup is a one-time competition allowing role play games of various clubs and genres to compete against each other in a friendly manner for several awards.  Each participating sim first submits one mission/episode/thread/chat session that was completed during 2012.  Next, each sim’s submission is evaluated by two judges on a specific criteria set.  The games receiving the highest marks are then recognized.

Evaluating sims will always be subjective and this is especially true for the Simulation Cup.  We’re not here to identify the best sim or sims as this is impossible.  Instead, we recognize what we think are the best sims in our opinions.  A different set of judges may very well chose a completely different set of winners.  And that’s fine.  As said earlier, each participating game was graded by two different judges. Read More

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Your character is a product of their ancestors

I hope you’re enjoying Way Back When Week! If you’ve not heard of it yet, see here.

Your character is a product of their ancestors. It’s a weird way to look at it, but it’s true of us all. The knowledge and experience that our parents have gathered gets passed onto us, including many life valuable life skills, and family values. Often we pick up hobbies and interests from our parents, follow the same sports, watch the same TV programmes, and do similar hobbies. Don’t forget though that your parents probably got a lot of these skills, values and interests from their parents too, and them from their parents and so on. Read More

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Way Back When Week Competition

way back when

Way Back When Week is a great opportunity to really get to know the background of your character, why they have a certain trait or family experience by telling it in the form of an extreme flashback to the event that first developed it, but more than that it’s a chance to enter your stories into a competition! Simply write your story and then send it to us, for a chance to win! The final date for competition entries is the 1st of December. Read More

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Way Back When Week Is Almost Here!

Way back when week

Ongoing Worlds will be having an extravaganza known as Way Back When Week from November 25 to December 1 2012. For this week, we invite the simming community to write posts in the format of extreme flashbacks to past generations to show their character’s family and backgrounds in a new light.
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Fallfest 2012 – IRC event for roleplayers

Fallfest banner

DavidThis article was written by Charles Star of Independence Fleet. Fallfest is similar to SciWorld, a chat event that ran a few months ago, but at a much more friendly time for Europeans. This sounds like a good idea to me, I was asleep when the best bits of SciWorld were happening!

Charles StarWe’re less than a week away from FallFest ’12!  What is FallFest, you might ask?  Well, it’s actual name is the Simming Fall Festival, and it’s an annual extravaganza held in online IRC chat rooms.

So this year on Friday, September 21st, role players from around the globe will come together to celebrate their craft: online simming and role playing.  We’ll meet for discussions, trivia games, and live sims hosted by some of the most talented and celebrated role players on the net.  With everything from Star Trek to Buffy, we’re sure to have something for you! Read More